Hosting Companies: Help for Python Users?

[Steve Holden]

I know there are quite a few hosting companies now who represent
themselves as Python-friendly. Rather than trawl through the Wiki pages,
however, and email each one separately I am sending this request to the
comp.lang.python list (and putting it on my blog) in the hope of
attracting those companies who are more involved with the Python community.

There is a particular problem, highlighted recently by this comment from
Dennis Lee Beiber:

Too many 3rd-party modules still aren't available in 2.5
versions for my tastes...

This applies particularly (though not exclusively) to the Windows
platform, for various reasons -- the most common one is that Linux
developers frequently don't have a Windows machine available to help
them test their builds and ensure that distributions are available.

I am trying to address this problem, initially by making hosted Windows
machines available for use as buildbots. I already have agreement from
Grig Gheorghiu (who maintains the PSF's buildbots) to try and support
these efforts, and from Microsoft to consider providing appropriate
software.

What I *don't* have is hosting companies offering me space on machines
in their racks. If anyone reading this can help out I'd appreciate it if
they would get in touch with me (replying to the newsgroup post or
commenting on the blog entry should do it). These machines would need
remote desktop access so they could be managed without physical presence.

The intention is to try and shorten the "version lag" so that new
versions of Python can be better supported more quickly. I don't
guarantee that this will happen overnight, but I'd like to make a start.

regards
Steve
--
Steve Holden [phone] [phone]
Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com
Skype: holdenweb http://del.icio.us/steve.holden
Recent Ramblings http://holdenweb.blogspot.com

[Larry Bates]

Steve Holden wrote:

I know there are quite a few hosting companies now who represent
themselves as Python-friendly. Rather than trawl through the Wiki pages,
however, and email each one separately I am sending this request to the
comp.lang.python list (and putting it on my blog) in the hope of
attracting those companies who are more involved with the Python community.

There is a particular problem, highlighted recently by this comment from
Dennis Lee Beiber:

>Too many 3rd-party modules still aren't available in 2.5
versions for my tastes...

This applies particularly (though not exclusively) to the Windows
platform, for various reasons -- the most common one is that Linux
developers frequently don't have a Windows machine available to help
them test their builds and ensure that distributions are available.

I am trying to address this problem, initially by making hosted Windows
machines available for use as buildbots. I already have agreement from
Grig Gheorghiu (who maintains the PSF's buildbots) to try and support
these efforts, and from Microsoft to consider providing appropriate
software.

What I *don't* have is hosting companies offering me space on machines
in their racks. If anyone reading this can help out I'd appreciate it if
they would get in touch with me (replying to the newsgroup post or
commenting on the blog entry should do it). These machines would need
remote desktop access so they could be managed without physical presence.

The intention is to try and shorten the "version lag" so that new
versions of Python can be better supported more quickly. I don't
guarantee that this will happen overnight, but I'd like to make a start.

regards
Steve

Apollo Hosting has this available (www.apollohosting.com).

-Larry

[Neil Hodgson]

Steve Holden:

Dennis Lee Beiber:

Too many 3rd-party modules still aren't available in 2.5
versions for my tastes...

This applies particularly (though not exclusively) to the Windows
platform, for various reasons -- the most common one is that Linux
developers frequently don't have a Windows machine available to help
them test their builds and ensure that distributions are available.

I am trying to address this problem, initially by making hosted Windows
machines available for use as buildbots.

I'd like to see this integrated in the Cheese Shop. I recently
released a small extension class and provided a source distribution and
a single binary for Python 2.5 on Windows. While I have the compilers
needed for building back to 1.5, most people don't and even when you do
it is complex to set up an environment for each version to compile
successfully.

It would be great if you could upload a source distribution and mark
it as containing files that need compilation for each version - or a
subset of versions if you know it requires particular features. Then the
compilation is farmed out to machines set up for each Python version and
when the compilation is finished, a status display shows the set that
are available and which failed along with a link to see the compilation
log. A unit test could be optionally included in an upload that would
contribute to whether the build is marked good.

Neil

[Steve Holden]

Neil Hodgson wrote:

Steve Holden:

>Dennis Lee Beiber:

> Too many 3rd-party modules still aren't available in 2.5
versions for my tastes...

This applies particularly (though not exclusively) to the Windows
platform, for various reasons -- the most common one is that Linux
developers frequently don't have a Windows machine available to help
them test their builds and ensure that distributions are available.

I am trying to address this problem, initially by making hosted Windows
machines available for use as buildbots.

I'd like to see this integrated in the Cheese Shop. I recently
released a small extension class and provided a source distribution and
a single binary for Python 2.5 on Windows. While I have the compilers
needed for building back to 1.5, most people don't and even when you do
it is complex to set up an environment for each version to compile
successfully.

Well, that's a great idea but it's ambitious. I'm not sure how we could
give access to all the developers of Cheese Shop packages who would like
to define a Windows build. Your skills and knowledge could clearly be
valuable here.

It would be great if you could upload a source distribution and mark
it as containing files that need compilation for each version - or a
subset of versions if you know it requires particular features. Then the
compilation is farmed out to machines set up for each Python version and
when the compilation is finished, a status display shows the set that
are available and which failed along with a link to see the compilation
log. A unit test could be optionally included in an upload that would
contribute to whether the build is marked good.

It would indeed be great, and this was my original grand conception.
Given that it will all have to be supported by volunteer effort, though,
I can't commit to providing these features much as I would like to see
them available - much more is needed in the way of community support
before we can advertise what's effectively a compile farm for each
Python version (and then we would need to take the various different
Windows-supported hardware architectures into account).

Please don't think I am trying to pour cold water on your enthusiasm, I
really do believe that what you describe would be a great facility. I am
just trying to temper the enthusiasm with a modest dose of reality. If
we could get enough offers of hosted machines and buildbot management I
would love to see this come to fruition.

regards
Steve
--
Steve Holden [phone] [phone]
Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com
Skype: holdenweb http://del.icio.us/steve.holden
Recent Ramblings http://holdenweb.blogspot.com